Throwing Ropes

So I returned to the game of speedball yesterday. I played seven games on a friend's airball course (yes, he owns his own Sup'Airball field) and pretty much got schooled.

It's been about four years since I played any speedball, and it is most definitely a perishable skill. I remembered how to use a bunker, but I found that I couldn't shoot left handed and hit anything besides the sky. I used to practice shooting southpaw simply because you have to when shooting out the left side of cover. The result yesterday was I was forced to shoot righty from out the left side if I wanted to even come close to hitting. That exposed your left arm, part of your side, and more of your head then when you shoot right-handed out the right side. No matter how you contort yourself right-handed shooters are more exposed out the left. The result is predictable. I have a generous collection of welts on my left arm and left torso.

I am not going to say that speedball is a young mans game - it's not necessarily. What it is, if you want to be good, is something that requires a lot of dedication and practice. Two things I've been lacking for a while.

Oh, well.

And to make the day even more frustrating, when I tried to fill my Air America Raptor system (about five years old), it started leaking out of the recharge valve. I'll have to send it back to them and get it fixed. The only problem with that is I have a scenario game in two weeks. We'll see how that works out.

My gear is antique now, as I've mentioned here before, and it really showed. The 'kids' all had new-fangled guns that could throw a LOT of paint. They called it 'throwing ropes', and I admit it's a pretty apt description. When they really ramp up those Intimidators, it does look like a solid stream of paint coming at you. It's a good incentive to duck. :)

In the end, I had fun yesterday even as I got owned. There was a lot of friendly trash talk, which always cracks me up.

"Hey! do you even remember how to play speedball?"

"Damn, I forgot. Which end do I point at the other team? This one?"

Anyway, I'll go back, and I might even start to practice a bit. Not sure how much more I can take of getting eliminated in all but one game, and only getting one elimination in return.

Jack & Bobby

I'm a skeptic when it comes to new television shows. Usually the fall line-ups are full of the same crap, and the recent surge in reality television has not helped. I despise most sitcoms - Seinfeld made me chuckle once and a while but more often made me cringe - and dramas all seem to be the same these days. I swear 'CSI' is the most ridiculous piece of crap I've seen in a while. How can this actually be the most watched drama in America? Am I the only one who finds it completely ludicrous (not to mention disgusting)? Oh, well. I will admit, I will give CSI: New York a try, just because I am a fan of Gary Sinise.

But all of that isn't the point of this monologue. I just finished watching a really impressive drama on the WB (gasp?) called Jack & Bobby. It is, by far, the best television show I have seen in a long, long while. It was intelligent, witty, and somehow touching.

The premise is simple, one of the McAllister brothers, Jack or Bobby, will become the 51st President of the United States in 2040. This is the story of his youth - growing up with his brother and mother in the mid west.

The show was set in the modern day with occasional flash forward to interviews conducted after the McAllister Administration left office in 2049. The effect was good, and the writers left you hanging until the end of the pilot to see which brother is going to be elected President. What was great about the show was that it could have been very political, but instead focused on the central theme: how does a young man grow into a person that could be president?

The show was very well written, and the actors portraying the teenage brothers were fantastic. I think everyone should check this show out at least once to see if it's for them.

Halo 2 - A new paradigm?

Been reading some about the upcoming Halo 2 multiplayer features. There are several toys in there that I feel fall into the 'well duh, why didn't anyone think of that before" category.

First, the 'party' system. Instead of a group of friends scrambling around trying to join the same server individually, you can form a party and simply join together. The members of the party will stick together, even if the party switches servers. This is a very cool idea that should make it a piece of cake for friends to get together and play online. Also, it will rank the players in the party against one another - independent of the overall game score (?) - making it easy to see who has the right to talk smack.

Second, rotating hosts. When a group launches a game, the Xbox with the best internet connection automatically becomes the server. If the host drops out, instead of the game dying it will shift the hosting chores to the Xbox with the next best connection, etc. etc. on down the line. This is awesome! No more dropped games because of a network failure, just a short pause while it shifts to another Xbox.

Third, 'Premade' games. A player can join a game and automatically get put among players that are similarly ranked, playing a random gametype. While most of my time will be spent in co-op, I think this a novel idea that deserves some recognition.

All in all, the multiplayer Halo 2 experience looks like it's going to be worth the price of admission all by itself. I hope to see some of these features, especially parties and rotating hosts, to show up in other Xbox Live games and even on the PC platform soon.

No speedball, but upcoming scenario games...

The games were canceled yesterday due to a lack of participation. Oh well.

I will be playing in an evening scenario game on 2 October, and probably in a 24 hour game the weekend of 13-14 November. Looking forward to both of those.

We are going to try to get a series of three-man scrimmages set up for next weekend, so I might have some action to report here.

Speedball beckons...

So I've been talked into joining my ex-teammates for a casual game of speedball on Sunday. I hope that the old bod is still up to it. I've grown away from paintball in the recent years, but I'm not certain why. I enjoy the game, but perhaps feel guilty for 'wasting' so much family time on the weekends?

By the time I quit playing paintball (about four years ago), I had grown to hate speedball. That distaste has kept me away even though all by old compadres are runnin 'n' gunnin again. We'll see Sunday of I can still cut the mustard. Expect a report here if I survive. :)

Chindi by Jack McDevitt

While on vacation, I found myself without anything to read (bad planning). So we headed into town, and found a Wal-Mart and a Barnes and Noble. I wandered into the bookstore and started browsing the Sci-Fi section.

I saw a book on the shelf that called out to be read - Chindi by Jack McDevitt. I knew the book existed - after all, it's the most common hit on Google when searching for my screen name - but had never investigated what it was about. To my surprise, it's hard SF - and it was really good. Really.

I'm not going to go into great detail here, but if you enjoyed any of Asimov's Foundation books, you should really take a look at this. The one thing I did find odd - the title. It's completely offhand, and has little to do with th Navajo origin of the word. In fact, the definition given in the book is not really accurate.

That little quibble aside, everything about the book was enjoyable. I stayed up very late a couple of nights to finish it off, I didn't want to put it down. And more importantly, it made me want to pick up my own writing again. I love inspiring works like that!

Back from vacation....

I've been out of town on vacation since 2 September. I'll post a bit about that (and a few other topics) when I get some spare time. Work has piled up while I was gone, so that's going to have to be the priority for a little while.

SQL Server Ownership Changes

I recently moved a SQL Server 2000 database from a server owned by a client to my test server. In the process, several objects retained as owner a user that was not in my server (and I did not want in my server). I've used the sp_changeobjectowner for single changes, but was not looking forward to having to do fifty objects one at a time.

After a quick Google, I found the this Microsoft Knowledge Base article (275312). It works like a charm.

So if you need to do a bunch of ownership changes in SQL Server 2000, check that out.